There is a substantial industry worldwide directed to the manufacture and use of packaging for articles of various types. As the world population becomes more mobile, they demand packaging for articles for use both inside and outside the home. For example, articles needed outside the home that can placed into closed individual packaging include personal use articles, such as cosmetics or sanitary products, foodstuffs such as fruits, cereals and sandwiches toys, and business items. Such articles may need to be enclosed in packaging that will remain securely sealed, will not open unexpectedly, will protect the article from moisture and other elements, or will contain undesirable elements of the article such as waste materials and malodor from escaping the package in order to protect the surrounding environment.
There is also a need to package articles acquired or accumulated outside the home, either for disposal or delivery, or for return. Such articles can include ones that may be odiferous and/or contaminated with waste products, including used disposable absorbent articles such as diapers (especially when containing a bowel movement) and sanitary products. Efforts have been made in the past to provide disposal devices that can be used to package such odiferous or contaminated articles until disposed. Such disposal devices have included basic waste pails such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,199, issued to Pontius. Other devices include those that employ a mechanical features to dispense and/or enclose a plurality of waste articles into a disposal container, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,680, issued to Asbach et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,913, issued to Asbach et al.; Pat. No. 6,065,272, issued to Lecomte; U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,512, issued to Richards, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,890, issued to Firth; U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,200, issued to Jacoby et al.; EP Publication 0,005,660-A, assigned to Scido; U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,368, issued to Couper; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,336, issued to Forslund. One such device is known as the Diaper Genie®, which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,049, issued to Richards, et al. The product and the patent disclose a receptacle with a hinged closure, and a dispenser for a pack of layered, flexible tubular sheet that is fed into the annular opening of the receptacle. Waste diapers can be inserted into the tubing though the receptacle opening, and can be enclosed by gathering the trailing tubing with a rotatable removable lid that engages the tubing. The device can be replenished with refill tubular sheet from a refill cassette, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,529, issued to Richards, et al., which discloses a cassette having a layered pack of tubular sheet positioned between a inner tubular core and an outer surrounding wall. The tubular sheet can be dispensed upward through an annular slot in a cap, and into the top opening of the device.
Despite the efforts to improve the packaging of articles, including odiferous and waste contaminated articles, there remains a need for improvements in the portability, flexibility, and effectiveness of devices for forming closed individually packaged articles.